Dangerous Territory
by Lexiconicy
Summary: When Austin Moon started his first day of school, what he didn't expect was to be pulled into the investigation that his parents were looking into. He definitely didn't expect to assess the main suspect from only 5ft away. And he certainly didn't expect to fall for the said suspect's girlfriend. It's going to be a long first term...
1. Schools and Settings

**Dangerous Territory**

When Austin Moon started his first day of school, what he didn't expect was to be pulled into the investigation that his parents were looking into. He definitely didn't expect to assess the main suspect from only 5ft away. And he certainly didn't expect to fall for the said suspect's girlfriend. It's going to be a long first term...

* * *

Prologue/Chapter 1: Schools and Settings

"So where exactly are we going?"

Dez and Austin sat in the car on the never-ending trip.

"Some place in Miami. Coral something or...no wait it's called Coral Gables."

"Weird name," Austin remarked.

"So you'll be going to Marino High School, home of the Manatees. It's a nice school from what I've read. Their main local rivals are the Miami High Stingarees"

"Cool"

They sat and watched the trees whiz past as they drive to Florida.

"This is going to be a long trip," Austin sighed.

"Oh don't worry man, I brought all my Katy Perry CDs so we could sing along."

"That's not any better than before. Actually scratch that, that makes this whole situation worse. I hate to break it to you man, but singing is not your thing. And you don't sound like her when you do."

"This is the real me Austin! You can't stop me following my dreams!" Dez yelled.

Dez then proceeded to belt out the chorus of Roar.

Yes. This was definitely going to be a very long trip.

* * *

The two of them stopped outside the school.

"Welcome to Miami High, home of the Manatees!" Dez exclaimed excitedly. "Did you know it is one of the highest ranked schools in the country?"

"So why are we here then?" Austin asked quizzically, cocking his head to one side.

"I can tell someone didn't read their introductory papers"

"Hey! I skimmed them over, I'll have you know!"

Dez rolled his eyes. "You're lucky to have me you know."

"Trust me, I know. Hurry up and get to the point! Why are we here?"

"Okay, Okay, don't have a heart attack there...Basically one of the students was found dead in a street near here. Preliminary tests point to drug overdose, but the investigators think it could be a cover-up for something more questionable."

"What? Like murder or something?"

"No stupid. Something like getting trampled by horses - of course murder!"

"But why am I standing outside this school?"

"Because your parents want you to get an education, even while they're investigating murder?"

"But it's not a school day."

Dez looked confused. "Don't you want to look around?"

"Won't it be locked?"

"Oh." Dez paused. "I hadn't though of that."

Austin mentally facepalmed. Sometimes even the simplest of things escaped Dez, who could recite the entire storyline of the Zaliens movie arc if you asked.

"I guess we'll just go home then..." Dez was totally flustered. To be fair though, Dez preferred to be home schooled, because as a child, he'd wanted to be a filmmaker, so his parents had just specialised him in that, with smaller portions of other subjects on the side. Naturally, his social skills had kinda suffered a blow. I didn't really mind. We had known each other for years, and understood each other well enough to be brothers.

Austin wasn't sure what he'd do without Dez. Dez had been there on the nights that Austin's parents hadn't made it home and Austin had automatically assumed the worst. Dez was the only person who knew that his parents worked in dangerous situations like investigating murderers. Austin relied on Dez when he couldn't rely on his own judgement. Austin couldn't even count the amount of times that they'd watched Zalien movies until the sun came up because he couldn't sleep.

As they got back into the car, Austin breathed in the smell of salted caramel chocolate and old burger wrappers. Dez's car smelt just like his room (and all of his clothes for that matter). It smelt like a safe haven. Dez was always there when Austin needed a friend the most.

Dez was quiet the whole ride home. But as they pulled up outside Austin's apartment which he "shared" with his parents, Dez cleared his throat.

"I drove us there because...I'm going to go with you."

"What? To school?"

"...Yes."

"Really?"

"...Yes," Dez looked at Austin's face. He bit his bottom lip slightly.

Austin smiled. "That's so exciting!"

Dez's face relaxed, but tension was still lingering in his eyes.

Austin tilted his head to the side and put his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "You'll be fine. Tell you what, I'll come over on Monday morning and help you get ready. You'll be fine, trust me."

"Okay."

"Okay," Austin replied. "I'll see you tomorrow, good buddy."

"You too, man"

And with that, Austin stepped out of the car and walked to the main door of the apartment block. He frantically searched through his badly packed backpack for his key. He breathed a sigh of relief as he fished the small keychain from (naturally) the bottom of his bag.

As he waited in the elevator, he mentally prepared himself for this next chapter of his life. Same characters, same plot, just a different setting.

The doors opened and he walked to his front door.

_Breathe in, breathe out, repeat._

_Nothing is going to change._

* * *

**Welcome to Dangerous Territory, my latest exploration of the A&amp;A AU world.**

**I shall be your lovely author and feel free to express your feels through Reviews or PMs anytime.**

**I hope to update bi-weekly (every second week) due to family, school and sporting committments, but that will change seasonally.**

**I aim to have around a thousand words per chapter, just to stretch my writing ability and to keep chapters interesting.**

**(Obviously this chapter functions mainly as a prologue.)**

**-Lexiconicy xoxo**


	2. Dreams and Dents

When Austin Moon started his first day of school, what he didn't expect was to be pulled into the investigation that his parents were looking into. He definitely didn't expect to assess the main suspect from only 5ft away. And he certainly didn't expect to fall for the said suspect's girlfriend. It's going to be a long first term...

* * *

Chapter 2 - Dreams and Dents

The key clicked into place with familiar ease. The door was strangely silent as Austin opened it.

He stepped inside, with his footsteps hitting the wooden floorboards, the noise bouncing off the walls and echoing around the apartment.

The lights left shadows on the walls. The smell of cleaning products lingered in the air. It didn't feel like a home. It felt like a display house - disconnected and modern with all the decorations arranged just so. Austin had a strange urge to just move everything around to disrupt the perfection of the area, but with any luck, he wouldn't have to spend much time in the place anyway.

He continued down the hallway, feeling very out of place and very awkward. If Dez were here, he would almost certainly break something. Austin laughed quietly to himself at the thought of Dez living in this house. It would be trashed in a week.

Austin felt confined in the compact home. It was eerily quiet. He should be used to it by now, with all the empty homes that he'd lived in before, but there was usually at least some road noise or neighbours or _something_.

Austin felt completely alone. He had one friend, he was starting school halfway through senior year and parents were (as usual) nowhere to be seen.

_Fantastic._

He walked the master bedroom, which would, as usual, have all of his parents' things already unpacked, colour co-ordinated and crisply folded. He didn't bother to check. It was just how things always went.

_Nothing is going to change._

He got to the other room, with his old, battered suitcase waiting patiently outside. He dragged it into the room carelessly and flicked the light switch on. It was a plain room, but his eyes caught on something beautiful sitting in the corner.

An acoustic guitar was propped up against a keyboard.

This was a first. Either by some miracle his parents had actually figured out what he was interested in, or more likely, they had come as part of the "home decorations". But Austin didn't ponder how they got there for too long. He was way more interested in actually playing them. He dumped his suitcase and backpack on the floorboards and raced over to the corner, running his fingers over the keys of the keyboard.

It wasn't a piano or anything, but Austin was practically pinching himself. The idea of having his own instruments in his own room was so novel that Austin's brain was rejecting the notion. He started laughing. It was the crazed, thankful kind of laughter that someone has when they win money on a game show. The laughter bounced off the echoing walls and back to Austin. It sounded just as crazy as he felt.

He would call Dez later. Right now there was a real serious, very extremely important task he had to complete.

_JAM SESSION! Can I get a HELL YEAH!?_

He started playing random chords and ended up playing the intro to Ariana Grande's Break Free, which Austin found funny, since he didn't always like her music.

_This is the part where I say I don't want you_

_I'm stronger than I've been before_

_This is the part where I break free_

_Cause I can't resist it no more._

Austin sang the chorus and then stopped. He was drunk on the opportunities made so suddenly available to him.

He laughed and picked up his phone to call Dez, who had probably only just got home.

"Austin?" Dez's bewildered voice echoed through the phone.

"You are never going to believe what happened!"

"Ooh! Ooh! Let me guess! You bought a pet monkey? Your house is made of marshmallow? No wait, you accidentally dented the wall!"

Austin cut him off before he could say anymore. "No, I have a guitar and a keyboard in my room in this fancy new apartment. And hey, I wouldn't have accidentally dented the wall. When have I ever done that?"

"They say that there's a first time for everything. And plus, you have done that before anyway. Don't you remember your fifth birthday party?"

"No. I can't say that I do."

"Well I can. I wouldn't say that it was your best party, but that was probably because you knocked the cake onto the floor. I was so disappointed..." Dez trailed off nostalgically.

"Back to the important bit about me getting a guitar and a keyboard!"

"Oh, right. So why are you telling me this?"

"Because now we can finally record a proper music video for me like we always said we would!"

There was silence down the other end of the phone.

"Dez? Dez?"

"I'm grabbing my camera. We're going to need a lot more instruments if we want to do this properly. I'll be at your house in five. We're going to need some pizza and inspiration for this undertaking."

Austin hung up the phone quickly and took one last longing look at the keyboard and guitar sitting in the corner of the room, before racing out of his room toward the elevator, nearly spilling hot coffee all over a girl outside the door of his apartment.

"What is wrong with you?" the short, dark-haired girl yelled at him.

"Sorry!" he yelled over his shoulder as he jumped into the elevator before it left. He'd surely have time to make up for it later.

Right now, he was taking the first step toward achieving his dream.

* * *

**A/N fortnightly means the same as monthly right? (Note my sarcasm)**

**I'll upload another one soon because I'm inspired! **

**-Lexiconicy xoxo**


	3. Instruments and Insults

When Austin Moon started his first day of school, what he didn't expect was to be pulled into the investigation that his parents were looking into. He definitely didn't expect to assess the main suspect from only 5ft away. And he certainly didn't expect to fall for the said suspect's girlfriend. It's going to be a long first term...

* * *

Chapter 3 - Instruments and Insults

Austin sat in the gutter, tapping his foot impatiently. Dez wasn't late yet, he hardly ever was. Austin's head would look up expectedly with every passing car.

After what felt like hours, Dez's little orange car drove down the street and stopped a couple of metres down from Austin. In just seconds, Austin was in the car and tapping his fingers on the seat excitedly .

Neither of them spoke, which was strange. They were always debating or discussing something. They arrived at the "Mall of Miami", parked the car and picked up a map from the information desk.

Austin's eyes skipped over the names until he found a music store. "I found it!"

"Pizza?"

"The music store."

"Oh. Pizza first."

"What?"

"I've been driving your sorry ass all day. I am hungry and enjoying the silence you have fallen into. We're getting pizza first." With that, Dez starting walking away to the pizza store he had found on the map.

"But…" Austin's shoulders slumped. Sure, he was starving too, but this was his dream that they were working towards! Couldn't the food wait?

Dez turned and shouted over his shoulder. "Driver gets to choose, shotgun shuts his piehole."

Austin sighed and walked after Dez, dragging his feet.

By the time Austin got there, Dez had already ordered. "Mushroom on one side, everything on the other," he gestured to the menu.

Austin rolled his eyes. "I am not even talking to you."

Dez laughed. "Said the moody teen to the sole director, producer and camera man of his yet-to-be-made music video"

Austin glared.

Dez smirked.

"Fine. I was hungry too. But this is really important to me!"

"I know, good buddy. But pop star wannabes need to eat just as much as the next person. And as your only friend, I accept the responsibility of looking after all your pizza-related needs." Dez put his hand on his heart. "Because pizza is really important to me."

Austin laughed. Dez was the friend that Austin really needed.

But that, however, did not stop him from quite often being the most annoying person on the planet.

The person at the counter called out. "Order for Dezzy-roo?"

Dez snickered. "I made them say Dezzy-roo!" He proceeded to walk over to the counter and pick up the pizza.

Because he's just that mature.

Austin facepalmed. To be fair though, without Dez, his life would not be nearly as interesting.

Austin looked back to Dez again, who was making a big deal of walking as slow as humanely possible.

His life probably wouldn't be as frustrating either.

Austin walked over to where Dez was making a public fool of himself, grabbed the pizza out of his hands and sat back down again.

"Okay, so now we'll make a rough plan of what we're going to do."

It was SRS BSNS time.

* * *

The moment that they were ready to go, Austin bolted out of the store.

"Other way!" Dez yelled out from the door of the pizza shop.

Austin did a smooth turn around and continued bolting for the music shop, now in the correct direction.

It was easy enough to spot. There were a decent amount of people streaming in and out, but Austin certainly didn't waste time joining their slow pace.

He walked in and stopped (ever so conveniently) in the doorway. He breathed in the smell.

He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting. It just smelled clean, like someone had spent a lot of time polishing the instruments.

"Can you move, kid?"

"Um yeah, sure..." Austin stumbled over to some benches deliriously.

Dez finally walked in. "Slow down next time will you? Running here is not going to get it filmed any faster."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure."

"We'll start with the drums scene and then move on to guitar. Is it still too late to add the bagpipes? 'Cause those are my favourite!"

Austin just ignored him this time. He sat at the drums and whipped out his secret weapon - corn dogs.

Austin didn't just want any ordinary music video. He wanted something different, something fun. Him and Dez had put their heads together and decided on a food theme; they would incorporated food into every scene like playing drums with corn dogs and playing guitar with a dorito instead of a pick. Personally, Austin thought that it was genius and with a good lot of talent and some great directing, it could be a number one.

He took a deep breath.

"Action!" Dez yelled.

Austin started rocking out on the drums.

Well, until a loud whistle nearly knocked him off the stool.

He and Dez both looked up in perfect sync.

A brunette stood in front of them, wearing a nametag that said "ALLY".

"Did you not see the 'Please Do Not Play The Drums' sign?"

Austin smiled. "It's okay! I'm an awesome drummer."

She raised her eyebrows. "What you just said has nothing to do with what I just said. Are those corn dogs?" She nodded her head at the corn dogs.

Austin looked at the corn dogs in his hands and bit the top of one._  
_

_mmmmm_

Needless to say, Austin loved corn dogs.

Ally made a face and laughed. "Do you know how dirty these drums are? Don't be surprised if you come down with some foreign disease..."

Dez interrupted. "Miss, we are trying to make a music video. I am the director, although I prefer the term fimmaker." Dez promptly dropped the camera and Austin can hear a sickening crack noise. "Aaaaand cut!" He walked toward the other side of the store to avoid further embarrassment.

Ally laughed. "Funny friend you've got there."

Austin stood up. "We're going to need a lot of instruments for the video. I can play almost anything, except bagpipes. They freak me out!"

"And why would I just give you instruments for a music video for free?"

"Because you want to support a guy who's decided to finally follow his dreams?"

Ally walked over to the counter. "If there's one thing I know Austin, it's that a career in the music industry can't be built overnight. It takes hard work and time, neither of which you have put into this 'music video'." She made quotation marks with her fingers. "And trust me, my dad would never let me give away instruments for free, we're trying to run a business here!"

Austin deflated. Every sentence had felt like another punch in the stomach.

"Come back when you have a couple of hundred dollars and an actual idea of what you're trying to do." She left Austin standing at the counter to go and help another customer.

Dez walked back over to Austin from where he'd been trying to put his camera back together in the corner. "So which instruments are we getting?" He asked excitedly.

Austin started towards the door. "None."

* * *

**Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for fanfictions that use a scene similar to that in the original work.**

**Ally is going to be more like S3 Ally than S1 Ally for reasons that you'll probably find out later.**

**I PROMISE THERE WILL BE MURDER LATER, but music is also going to be another important component in this story, because I don't think it would feel like an A&amp;A fanfic for me without it.**

**See you next time on...**

**DANGEROUS TERRITORY**

**-Lexiconicy**


	4. Meetings and Murder

When Austin Moon started his first day of school, what he didn't expect was to be pulled into the investigation that his parents were looking into. He definitely didn't expect to assess the main suspect from only 5ft away. And he certainly didn't expect to fall for the said suspect's girlfriend. It's going to be a long first term...

* * *

Chapter 4 - Meetings and Murder

Austin had perfected the art of getting ready for your first day at a new school. Dez however, for obvious reasons, had not. This particular morning was becoming a serious pain to Austin, who was starting to feel a headache.

Dez would just not shut up.

"...and what if the teacher leaves halfway through the term? Do you get an existing teacher or do they have to order in a new one? And what if you fail a class, do they kick you out of school?"

Austin looked up from his cereal to look at Dez. "You're not even asking sensible questions anymore. Come on man, you'll be fine."

"Fine then, let's talk about your extremely sudden lack of interest in music. Why the complete change of heart?"

Austin groaned. "Let's go back to the school questions."

"Well you're going to have to talk about it sooner or later!"

"How about never?"

"Whatever man, let's just go to school...I've always wanted to say that!"

Austin laughed and braved his heavy bag of books onto his back. "I promise you, you'll want to go back to being homeschooled ayer a week in the modern hellhole that we call school."

* * *

The two of them walked through the main gates together, one more excited than the other.

They did all the regular first day at a new school stuff, filling out forms, awkward introductions, collecting piles of papers and trying to read confusing campus maps.

They walked down to their locker corridor, where they had lockers at opposite ends. Austin walked Dez down the brightly colored hallway, which was embellished with the spirited school mascot, the Marino High manatee.

Austin pointed to the locker. "You put the combination that's written on this page into the lock and then you pack all of your textbooks and spare exercise books into it. I'm going to go do the same at my locker and I'll come back and meet you here in five minutes do we can walk to homeroom."

Dez nodded, way too excitedly. Austin had been through this same routine so many times that he was quite sick of it. He trudged down to the other end of the hallway to his own locker. He shoved all his books into the locker carelessly and slammed the door when he was done.

"Something got your trousers in a twist?"

Austin looked up to see the dark haired girl from the music store looking at him with a smirk.

Austin thought of a bunch of great comebacks, but instead just kinda drooped against the locker.

Her face softened slightly. She took a breath. "Look, I'm just trying to be honest with you."

"Yeah if you consider cruising someone's dreams with one flick of a hand honesty."

"It's the truth though! Look, you seriously need to consider what you were trying to do! It was never going to work. If I hadn't shot down these ideas now, then you'd just be more disappointed later."

"Look, whatever. I honestly don't want to have to stick around to hear you explain yourself. I'm meeting my friend anyway." Austin updated his bag onto his back and started to walk away.

He saw Dez further down the hallway, who had gotten into conversation with a short with dark curly hair. Austin recognised her as the girl from his apartment block, whom he'd spilt coffee on the other day. He decided not to being that up in case she was still mad. Dez was making a friend on his own and Austin didn't want to screw it up for him.

"Dez?"

"Oh hey Austin! This is Trish! She has the locker next to mine and she loves the Zaliens movies as well!" Dez's face lots up like a Christmas tree.

Trish looked incredulous. "We're you just talking to Ally Dawson?" She asked Austin.

Austin looked back to his locker where he had been standing to see the girl from the music store packing her books into the locker next to his. "Who? Her?" He pointed in her vague direction.

"Yeah, that's Ally. The last couple of months have been really messed up for her. She's really lovely though."

"She sure could've fooled me." Austin muttered.

"This guy kept asking her out all of last year, but she kept rejecting him because she didn't like him like that; they hardly even knew each other. Then suddenly over the summer, he committed suicide by like drug overdose ore something. His name was Elliott Smith."

Dez's eyes just about bugged out of his head, but he composed himself quickly. "Well see you later, Trish!"

She shrugged. "Well yeah, I guess."

She walked around the corner.

"What was up with that, man?" Austin asked.

"You really don't read any of your introductory papers do you? Elliott Smith is the murder case that you're parents are investigating!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Trish said that Elliott committed suicide. Why are my parents investigating a murder case?"

Dez facepalmed and sighed very loudly. "Read your freaking introductory papers, man! It was declared a suspicious suicide - strictly off the public record though. The local authorities thought that the drug overdose was strange, especially because he played football at a really high level and they had to do drug tests all the time. He'd never had any record with anything like that before. The only reason that it was ruled as suicide was because there was a note in his lap that just said the word 'SORRY' written on it. Like a note or whatever. It was all a bit suss. "

Austin glanced down the hallway to where Ally was still standing. "Spooky..."

Ally looked over at him and then turned on her heel and promptly walked away.

Austin shook his head. "...too spooky..."

"Anyway, now that we've got the day's depressing quota out of the way, let's get the exciting stuff, like homeroom!"

Austin rolled his eyes and patted his friend on back, but couldn't quite shake the ominous felt that came with finding out about murder.

* * *

"I don't know. It's just bothering me that she thinks he's the reason he committed suicide when it was more likely that someone murdered him."

"You just feel guilty for yelling at her this morning now that you know about this Elliott guy." Dez chewed his salad wrap thoughtfully.

Austin choked. "How the hell do you know about that?"

"Did you even hear the word yelling? I was only just down the corridor. It's not like it was a particularly loud hallway. You really need to learn how loud you're speaking."

"Okay, so maybe I do feel a bit guilty. But she deserves to know anyway. It's not fair that they're not telling the public. People like her deserve to know."

"It could be illegal."

"Probably. But I never read the paperwork anyway."

"...I'm in."

"Who said anything about you helping? I'm pretty sure it only takes one person to tell her and you've never even met her anyway."

"I'm the backup."

"Why would I need backup?"

"I don't know! I just want to feel involved okay! Let me have this one thing! Can't you just let me have this one thing? Grant me something this small, Austin."

"Woah there, calm down, okay, you're in, whatever."

"Yay! So what's the plan?"

A moment of silence passes.

"...I have absolutely no idea."

* * *

**A/N: Woah! Did I say two weeks? I meant two months. Definitely meant two months...**

**Anyway, now we're getting into threw gritty of this story - the murder! **

**Since I've had so long to post on this story, I've worked through lots of the plot bunnies and the story should run smoother than it would have. I'm writing this whole on an overseas tour, so updates should be surprisingly frequent, since the Internet is so bad that i can hardly load any other website. **

**-Lexiconicy xoxo **


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